Oman 2011 average oil output up at 884,900 bpd

Muscat, February 20, 2012

Oman's average oil production rose to 884,900 barrels per day (bpd) in 2011, up 2.3 percent from 2010, an oil and gas ministry official said on Monday, but oil production by state-run Oman Petroleum Company (PDO) fell.

The sultanate's average gas production in 2011 also increased to 95.1 million cubic meters per day, up 4.4 percent from 2010, the under secretary for Oman's oil and gas ministry said.

"The increase was due new discoveries of oil and gas," Nasser Al-Jashmi told Reuters.

Despite a rise in total oil production, PDO's output fell from an average of 553,000 barrels per day of crude in 2010 to 549,280 bpd of oil in 2011.

The average price of oil sold by Oman last year was $102.9 per barrel, up more than 34 percent from 2010's $76.6 a barrel, thanks to a surge in global oil prices last year.

The non-Opec oil producer pumped an average of 864,600 bpd of oil in 2010. - Reuters